Out of many waterfalls in the Bernese Oberland, the Reichenbach Falls seems to have made the greatest impression on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was shown them on a Swiss holiday by his host Sir Henry Lunn, the founder of Lunn Poly. Sir Henry's grandson, Peter Lunn, recalled, "My grandfather said 'Push him over the Reichenbach Falls' and Conan Doyle hadn’t heard of them, so he showed them to him." So impressed was Doyle that he decided to let his hero die there.[5]

The actual ledge from which Moriarty fell is on the other side of the falls from the funicular; it is accessible by climbing the path to the top of the falls, crossing the bridge and following the trail down the hill. The ledge is marked by a plaque as illustrated here; the English inscription reads: "At this fearful place, Sherlock Holmes vanquished Professor Moriarty, on 4 May 1891." The pathway on which the duel between Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty occurs ends some hundred metres away from the falls. When Doyle viewed the falls, the path ended very close to the falls, close enough to touch it, yet over the hundred years after his visit, the pathway has become unsafe and slowly eroded away, and the falls have receded farther back into the gorge.[5]

The third episode from the 2012 second series of the BBC drama Sherlock, "The Reichenbach Fall" (inspired by "The Final Problem"), is a play on the waterfall's name.[12][13] The special episode of Sherlock, The Abominable Bride, which was broadcast on 1 January 2016, featured a re-creation of the showdown between Sherlock and Moriarty set in Victorian times, as depicted in the book.

The Holmes plaque on the ledge

Holmes and Moriarty fighting over the Reichenbach Falls. Art by Sidney Paget.